Introduction St Ursula’s provides students with the opportunity to engage in the study of significant aspects of the world around them and reinforces the Catholic ethos of the College informed by the Ursuline charism. Through reflection on past lives and societies, the physical world and the world of commerce, students develop an understanding of the core values of responsibility, reconciliation, tolerance and empathy. These are the building blocks to the development of the whole student.
Course Outline Each subject within HSIE helps to develop the students’ critical powers and their ability to hypothesise and analyse. History gives students an understanding of the past and the bearing it has on the present. Geography offers students knowledge of the physical world around them and the impact humans have on the world. Commerce supplies students with experience of the financial and legal world.
Stage 4 (Years 7 and 8)
History (Mandatory course)
Students complete 100 hours of study spread across Years 7 and 8. Areas studied in this Stage include societies from the Ancient and Medieval worlds as well as Indigenous Peoples and Contact History.
Geography (Mandatory course)
Students complete 100 hours of study spread across Years 7 and 8. Topics studied in this Stage include The Nature of Geography, World Heritage Sites and Global Environments.
Stage 5 (Years 9 and 10)
History (Mandatory course)
Students complete 100 hours of study of Australian History. For this course, students sit a School Certificate examination. Students are also offered three History elective courses. These courses are designed to cater for a wide range of students’ interests through focusing on a combination of people, events and societies from the Ancient, Medieval and Modern worlds.
Geography (Mandatory course)
Students complete 100 hours of study of Australian Geography. For this subject, students sit a School Certificate examination. Students are also offered two Geography elective courses. These courses allow the students to develop their skills in Geography through the study of developing countries, world political divisions, Australia’s neighbours and oceanography.
Commerce (Elective course)
The Year 9 elective class studies Consumer Choice and Personal Finance and is given the opportunity to run a small business. The Year 10 elective class studies Law and Society and Employment Issues and the factors which the students will need to know as they move towards financial independence.
Stage 6 (Years 11 and 12) The HSIE deparment offers the following Preliminary and HSC courses: Ancient History; Modern History; Society and Culture; Geography; Legal Studies; Business Studies; Economics. In Year 12, History students may study the History Extension course. | 
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